Honda’s new jet plane

Forget motorbikes. Honda’s latest way of getting yourself from A to B is on a whole different level. Literally, when it’s going. The HondaJet isn’t going into production until 2010, and it’ll cost a cool $3.65 million when it goes on sale, but the company claims it’s the fastest and most fuel-efficient aircraft in its class, with a top speed of 420 knots.

The jets will either seat seven or eight people, depending on which configuration you buy, including two pilots. Honda says there’s six inches more leg-room per passenger than its rivals, with more space for baggage – including storing stuff in the nose of the plane itself. It sounds like it’ll be the private jet to be seen in come 2010 (although not heard – it’s one of the quietest in its class too).

(via Automotoportal)

Firebox cocktail fountain

Apparently miniature chocolate fountains are set to be the hot gadget this Christmas, by which I mean the thing that thousands of people will buy, use once on Christmas Day, and then leave gathering dust in the corner of their kitchen alongside the breadmaker and smoothie blender.

Far better is this cocktail fountain, which Firebox is selling for £49.95. It’s similar to a chocolate fountain, except with booze replacing the liquid Nutella. And while it’s supposedly for punch, there’s no reason why you can’t swap that for wine, Baileys or tramp-strength cider. Be warned, it’s probably not as good for dipping mini-donuts in. Apart from the Baileys, of course. Mmm…

James Jarvis action figures

This motley crew is called The Forever Sensible Motorcycle Club and they’re perfect for lads who still like their record/DVD shelves to be adorned with cool figures. The figures are designed by artist James Jarvis who also gave the us the ace World of Pain characters and the In-Crowd. You can choose from Mongo, Alison, Kathleen, Eric, Astrid and Red and are currently on sale at FunkyZilla at a paltry £5.95.

Now is the time to start dropping hints if you want one as a stocking filler for Christmas. If the motorcycle club don’t tickle your pickle, you could always go for some ace retro tin toys. All in all, better than some new socks and a soap on a rope eh gents?

Reuters sends real reporter into Second Life game

Adam Pasick (pictured as himself and his online persona: Image: ©Jonathan Bainbridge/Reuters), a real reporter for distinguished news agency Reuters, has been dispatched to the realms of online role-playing game Second Life, to report on news in that virtual world. You could see this as a clever bit of PR for Reuters, but it’s also a sign of how influential MMORPGs (massive multiplayer online role-playing game) like Second Life and World of Warcraft (WoW) have become. Second Life has almost a million residents now, whilst WoW has almost seven million global subscriptions. It seems people are happy to spend more time in fake worlds than dealing with real issues. That’s fine on an individual basis, but how will this impact on society in general?

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Free games galore!

If you need an excuse to spend this weekend locked in your study, this website is it. Billing itself as The Ultimate Free Games List, it’s exactly what it says on the tin. Except these aren’t rubbish free games.

They’ve been handpicked, and include all manner of retro classics such as Sim City, Turrican 4, Head Over Heels, Zelda Classic and the original Grand Theft Auto. They’re all legal too – in fact, many are being offered by the companies who originally released them. Cool.

The Geek-a-Cycle exercise bike

Spent too much time sitting at your desk surfing the internetweb? Gasping for air when you walk even a short distance to the biscuit jar? Fed up of seeing your buttocks ooze over the sides of your office chair? You need to get fit then. But how, when you have so much work to do?

A company callled Slim Geek reckons it has the answer, with its Geek-a-Cycle. Pedal while you type, burning calories while avoiding the shame of going to the gym with properly fit people. It’s ideal! Even if I’m not convinced that it’s for real. At $349.95, it’s certainly pricey.

(via Real Tech News)

LCD Soundsystem’s 45-minute track for Nike

Nike has commissioned James Murphy (aka top dance group LCD Soundsystem) to write a piece of music to specifically accompany a workout – a workout it hopes you will supplement by using its nifty Nike+ iPod Sport Kit. The result, 45:33, is available for download from the iTunes Music Store as of today. As the title suggests, it’s a single 45-minute, 33-second-long track, and it costs £7.99. At one stage in the track’s intro you can hear Murphy whispering/crooning ‘Shame on you…’ – not sure if that’s a comment on the person doing the workout or Murphy chastising himself for taking the corporate dollar.

Edward Lee, toy photographer

That’s Edward Lee, a photographer of toys – rather than a toy who takes photographs, in case you were confused by the headline. Lee takes very cool, posed pix of action figures, like this one of King Kong scaring a little T-Rex. I use the word ‘scaring’ loosely, cause that’s the friendliest, cutest-looking Kong I’ve ever seen.

To see more of Mr Lee’s splendid images, check out his public Flickr site: LINK

Boeing’s laser gunship technology

And that phrase should be enough to have any right-thinking man on the edge of his seat. Boeing has been talking about its ‘Advanced Tactical Laser’, which is designed to be mounted on aircraft and used to blow the living daylights out of North Korean dictators any chosen enemy at long-range. Listen:

"The weapon operator will be able to select the degree and nature of the
damage done to a target by choosing a specific aimpoint and laser shot
duration. For example, targeting the fuel tank of a vehicle could
result in total destruction of the vehicle, while targeting a tyre
might result in the vehicle stopping without injury to the driver."

At least there’d be no excuse for friendly fire with this kind of technology. At least, that’s what you’d hope. If it doesn’t look like this image I found on Google, though, I’ll be sorely disappointed.

(via Engadget)

Greenpeace solar-powered fridge

The UK’s fridge mountain is already too big to climb, even if you’re Sir Ranulph Fiennes with a tent-load of crampons. Humankind needs to figure out a new way to keep our cheese cool, and Greenpeace may have the answer. Its SolarChill fridge – which was developed together with six other organisations – recently scooped the Environmental Pioneer in Refridgeration award in the 2006 Cooling Industry awards.

It operates using solar energy, uses environmentally safe refrigerants, and doesn’t need lead batteries. Greenpeace hopes it will eventually replace the nasty old kerosene fridges that produce between 73 and 91 million kilograms of CO2 every year. More importantly, you could have one in your garden to ensure there’s always a cold beer to hand. We have our priorities straight, you understand…

Hero of the day: Derek Smalls

Name Derek Smalls.

Job Bass player, pipe smoker and peacemaker in Spinal Tap.

Special powers Deadpan delivery, monster basslines and getting stuck in giant pod like devices.

He said "We’re very lucky in the band in that we have two visionaries, David and Nigel, they’re like poets, like Shelley and Byron. They’re two distinct types of visionaries, it’s like fire and ice, basically. I feel my role in the band is to be somewhere in the middle of that, kind of like lukewarm water."

They said ‘"Do you have any artificial plates or limbs?" Just before pulling a cucumber wrapped in tinfoil out of his trousers.

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Dress your iPod for Halloween

Back in the day, owning an iPod set you apart as a tech-savvy man of taste and distinction. You knew your MP3s from your AACs, you had your entire CD collection at hand 24-7, and muggers still hadn’t worked out that white earphones meant a cash bonanza. Not any more. Every man, woman, child and beast now has seven iPods littered around the house. So how to stand out from the crowd?

Well, you could dress yours up as, er, a devil. Bear with me on this one. Leading (i.e. only) iPod costume firm iAttire has a new range of Halloween-themed accessories on sale in time for the spooky season.

The $19.99 devil costume is hand-made from plush crushed velvet, and includes horns, a tail and the obligatory pitchfork. There’s also masquerade eye-masks and bunny costumes. What do bunnies have to do with Halloween? No idea! But one thing’s for sure: you’re unlikely to meet anyone else on the train with an iPod clad in these. Really.

Self-destruct USB hub

You’re after a USB hub right? You also want to self destruct at the push of a big red villainous button? Good grief, you’re in luck! Go to GeekStuff4U, and you can buy this ridiculously ace contraption and press all the different death buttons that come complete with sound effects.

Face it, you need one of these on your desk.

Hero of the day: Ulysses 31

Name Ulysses.

Job Futuristic Greek god, who annoyed Zeus by destorying the Cyclops. Consequently, Ulysses was sentenced to wander through space to try and find a way back to Earth.

Special powers Looking like Eric Gerets (former Belgian Football captain).

He said ‘Without the light of the Cyclops they are quite harmless!’

They said ‘Ulysses, Ulysses, soaring through all the galaxies…’ and ‘Ulyseeeeeeees, no-one else can do the things you dooooooo…’ (both from the theme tune)

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Links of the day

LG’s mammoth 100inch LCD TV (pictured) enters the record books. [Engadget HD]
Time Warner vs Google/YouTube.The pre-fight smack talk begins. [Guardian]
This giant biography site of Marvel Comics characters will waste several precious hours of your life. [Marvel Directory]
US judge takes issue with Rockstar’s as-yet-unreleased videogame ‘Bully’. [Cnet UK]
Sony fires 70,000 litres of paint at building for its new Bravia TV ad. [Tech Digest]